The week in Mexico: 1-31-2010

Investigator in Californian’s slaying killed: The lead investigator in the slaying in Mexico of a Southern California school board member has been killed in an ambush, authorities in Gomez Palacio said yesterday. Officials wouldn’t say whether investigator Manuel Acosta’s killing was related to last month’s killing of Agustin Roberto “Bobby” Salcedo of El Monte. Acosta, 42, was ambushed near his office Jan. 15 by gunmen in a pickup. He was shot several times in the chest and torso, but survived in critical condition until succumbing to his wounds Tuesday.

Book on Mexican police: The book “Police and Public Security in Mexico” was presented at the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute. USD’s David Shirk, one of nine experts who wrote essays for the book, said he had hope that reforms can greatly improve the Mexican criminal justice system. “There are many good police in Mexico” that are victims of a bad system, he said.

Record drop in remittances: Money sent home by Mexicans abroad plunged a record 15.7 percent in 2009 as migrants worldwide struggled to find work during the global economic slowdown, the central bank reported Wednesday. Remittances — Mexico’s No. 2 source of foreign income after oil exports — totaled $21.2 billion in 2009, compared with $25.1 billion in 2008, the bank said.

GDP down 6.8 percent: Mexico’s economy shrank 6.8 percent in 2009, the worst result in at least 30 years, the Treasury Ministry said. The ministry said it expects GDP to grow about 3 percent this year.

Decapitated bodies: Police yesterday found two severed heads near blanket-wrapped bodies in Ciudad Juarez, a border city where 15 people were killed in less than 24 hours. In Michoacan state, authorities Friday found the decapitated bodies of six men, and a group of at least a dozen armed men attacked a federal police convoy, killing five officers and wounding seven. On Thursday, gunmen in the Michoacan town of Quiroga killed the police chief and two officers; a head had been dumped in the town the day before.

Officials released: A judge, a governor’s aide and a handful of other Mexican public officials were released yesterday from a Michoacan jail where they were being held for alleged ties to organized crime. Prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to hold the 12 men — among 31 former officials arrested in Michoacan last year.

Inmates to Mexico? California’s cash-strapped state government has no plans to ship inmates to prisons in Mexico, despite an off-the-cuff remark last week from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a prison official said. Department of Corrections spokesman Gordon Hinkle said prison officials have not discussed the idea of housing inmates in another country. He said they will consult with the governor’s office after Schwarzenegger said Monday that the state could save money by working with the Mexican government to build and operate prisons for some California inmates. More than 70 percent of the 19,000 illegal immigrants imprisoned in California are from Mexico.

El Salvador protests migrant deaths: The government of El Salvador has filed a complaint with Mexican officials over the killing of three migrants and the rape of four others by armed men in southern Mexico. El Salvador’s deputy minister for Salvadorans abroad said about 150 migrants were pulled off a train by unidentified assailants in Oaxaca state. The official, Juan Jose Garcia, said three men were slain and four women raped in the Jan. 23 attack. Salvadoran migrants frequently hop freight trains in Mexico trying to reach the United States.